New National Education Technology Plan – but is it just words?

By Kate Worlock - United Kingdom - on March 9, 2010

The US education department has unveiled its thinking as to how technology should be used in schools to transform teaching and learning.  The message that current teaching practices do not prepare K-12 students adequately for further education or for the workplace, and that school learning activities bear little relationship to how students access information and media in a non-school setting, is finally sinking in.

The new report, the National Education Technology Plan, has been welcomed by bodies such as the SIIA, and as a theoretical thinkpiece has much to recommend it.  It’s difficult to disagree with statements such as “Education is the key to America’s economic growth and prosperity and to our ability to compete in the global economy” and to oppose the educational goals laid out by the Obama administration.  But the cold harsh reality of the economic climes in which we live may prove too much for the report’s lofty aims.  For example, how much will it actually cost to achieve this: “Ensure that students and educators have adequate broadband access to the Internet and adequate wireless connectivity both inside and outside school”?  Or this: “Ensure that every student and educator has at least one Internet access device and software and resources for research, communication, multimedia content creation, and collaboration for use in and out of school”.  At a time when government tax revenues are falling, and other worthy causes such as healthcare are also fighting for their share of the pot, moving the recommendations of this report into reality will be an uphill battle.

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